'A good traveller has no fixed plans.' Tao Te Chiang
The Road We Travel I think about the road we travelled, How it all seemed so serene - The sun shone down, like no tomorrow, On timeless hills and fields of shimmering green. Yet there was work to do, and cares to manage, Your sick child never really out of mind. This journey too would [...]
Once upon a time - it was a dark and stormy night, as I recall, my poor heart in turmoil, my tongue let loose upon the world in verse and worse - once upon a time, when I was younger, quite a lot younger in fact, and of course much less sensible than I am [...]
That long-ago momentin a hotel corridor -a woman’s soft mews and a man’sblunt panting. My own lifesuddenly unraveled,undone by this happiness.Or by no more than a mutuallysatisfactory encounter, a momentstolen behind a thin painted door.Until the couple stoppedwhatever they were doing.A sudden silenceand I moved quickly on.
This was not one of thoseSwooping soaringPhoto opportunities, you know,Where the bird glides in fromStage left andExits beautifullyTo the rightWith a pristinePink and silverSalmon or somethingA missile ready to launchFrom its clawFlakes of morning lightFalling from its not yet barbecuedFlesh. This was murder, a brawl in the shallowsWhich ended badlyFor the thrashing creature in the [...]
Woodsmoke. Embers. Whisky. Cigar. Good jazz playing, on a really nice system - Class A Marantz amp, Arcam CD player, B&W speakers, fat cables. Don't get me started. But the sound is warm, detailed, alive - every lick of the snares, grunt of the sax, deep and present, three-dimensional. Not loud, just there. As here [...]
I was going through a box of old diaries and papers last night (there are things in there that will go with me to my grave!) and came across a few copies of New Coin, Sesame, Staffrider – small South African literary magazines from the 80s and 90s. I knew there were a few old [...]
